How did the Safavid Empire both resemble and differ from its neighbors?

Answer 1

One thing that I always recommend to the students is that in order to understand the historical events, one must know the dates and the present-day country because the dates would show you the time period, the accomplishments of the world in that time period, and the surrounding neighbors/empires of that era. The present country would show you their religious, political, and cultural affiliations, etc.

So, the Safavids existed from the 1501s to the early 1700s (1736 to be precise). Now I know who was their biggest rival next door at that time. The Ottomans were at the peak of their achievements in that era. The Safavids were Shias and I know that because they were in Iran while the Ottomans were the Sunnis. That is one of the major differences because the religious differences derived from their political differences at the front end. They were both similar because they both followed Islam and were Muslims. By the mid-1500s both Otoomon and Safavoids were fighting a series of wars because of their differences over religious and political ideologies. Towards the left they had Ottomans and towards the right, they had Mughals in the sub-continent. Both were similar to Safavaids because they were Muslims. Their architecture and art were very similar to each other. Both Safavids and Otommons wanted to control Iraq and the Caspian sea region which Ottomans captured. Thus the territorial and religious difference continues. With Mughals, they had more similarities than differences in terms of political engagements. As many Persian was the court lanaguige of Mughal more in India.